We’ve written in the past about how TSA officers (TSAOs) don’t have a good reputation. People say they’re not nice, they’re grumpy and bossy, they have no patience, they’re on a power trip, etc.
Of course, there are some agents who aren’t like that at all. They’re kind and professional. They try to make the process less stressful (like this guy), or who will actually be helpful (like this amazing lady). But unfortunately, those kinds of TSAOs are few and far between.
Based on an audit the Department of Homeland Security had done in 2019, there are a bunch of reasons why TSAOs tend to be so…crabby. Money seemed to be the biggest issue, and that shouldn’t have been a surprise. TSAOs are historically one of the lowest groups of paid federal employees.
However, on December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the 2023 Omnibus government funding bill that funded 30% pay hikes for TSOs. The $398 million allotted to the agency to improve the pay and bargaining rights for TSOs would begin on July 1, 2023. Meanwhile, Congress provided the money to cover the raises for the first quarter of 2023 and everybody was happy. Or at least happiER.
So now what happened? With the almighty debt ceiling at stake, it’s questionable if Congress will extend the raises as planned. In fact, they may try to decrease TSAOs’ pay as a budget-cutting move.
Bloomberg reports that the proposal to extend the raises Congress approved last year may face pushback after all. Now some Republicans object to how much the raises would be, while others are looking at domestic spending cuts across federal agencies.
TSA is currently seeking $1.4 billion to maintain the raises that were promised, along with related spending on employee rights throughout the next fiscal year. It would be highly unusual and “devastating” for Congress to refuse to annualize the funding, said TSA Administrator David Pekoske.
See, the problem is, without those raises, the TSA strongly suspects two things will happen:
- The agency is already seeing more candidates for open jobs since the pay raises were announced. That larger pool of potential workers would undoubtedly dry up if announced pay was decreased
- Established TSAOs who had hung on, waiting for their raises to be permanent, would give up and look for better-paying employment elsewhere.
Either way, it would mean severe short-staffing at security checkpoints at airports, which would lead to “significantly longer wait times” for travelers, according to Pekoske.
Some people in Congress say the pay raises should only go to TSAOs at checkpoints, not those who have desk jobs.
“I support paying TSA employees fairly and taking care of our front-line officers, but the total cost of across-the-board pay increase presents a significant funding challenge,” said Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio). He leads homeland security appropriations in the House.
To that, Pekoske reminded Congress that it’s important to provide pay parity across the workforce so whole groups of employees don’t leave the agency. Even if some TSA workers aren’t seen by the public, leaving it shorthanded behind the scenes would still make difficulties for the agency on the whole.
“If we…try to pull pay back, you’re going to see people leaving the organization quite significantly,” said Pekoske, adding that reversing pay raises is “just not done.”
Of course, he’s right. You don’t promise raises and then say, “Oops, just kidding, not happening.” The fallout from that would be tremendous. Besides the importance of paying TSAOs fairly and on par with other federal workers, again, for us travelers, their leaving en masse would mean much longer queues at the TSA checkpoint.
Feature Image (cropped): oddharmonic / flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
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5 comments
Problem is creating chaos IS the end goal of the Republicans in congress currently. They figure they can create chaos and then try to pin the blame on someone else and when the majority of your constituents get their news from a single source they’ll believe it. Just look how many people think the debt limit is about future spending because that’s all they’ve been told about it. The goal is to oppose anything that would solve any problems because working systems are bad for them politically. Expect more of the same.
So….you are saying that if we don’t ‘bribe’ TSA agents with more money, they will be even worse at failing to do their job?? When you reward bad behavior — you are GUARANTEED to get more of it. You want more money? Earn it through better performance and showing basic respect for the American public who are flying. Simple math. Basic common sense.
You didn’t click on the link of that audit they did 2019, did you?
David get a life..get your facts straight unless too brainwashed
The TSA agents on the front lines need the pay raise not the Upper-Union DNC big guys pushing pencils
Dee, I removed the part of your reply that singled people out – that was rude and, as I’m sure you know from reading our rules before you posted, we don’t allow that.
That being said, keep in mind there are plenty of layers between the TSAOs and the big guys pushing pencils. I think schedulers, janitorial staff, clerks, receptionists, HR, et al, might like to get paid as much as their federal employee brethren, regardless of what side of the political fence they lean on.